


Yahaba Is Popular With The Girls

by HisokaXLove



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Praise Kink, S'mores!, Slow Burn, lots of swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-06-04 12:28:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6657730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HisokaXLove/pseuds/HisokaXLove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yahaba sat on the floor of the locker room with his fingers touching his lips, one thought circling his head over and over again. </p><p>“What the shit!” He muttered out loud to no one. It came out a little bit louder than he had intended, which really spoke to his mental status more than the acoustics of the locker room.</p><p>Kyoutani had just kissed him. What the fuck was he thinking? Did he not understand how the whole ‘hating each other’ thing worked? Yahaba had very little experience ever hating anyone in his life, but he knew for a fact that it did not involve kissing the object of your hatred.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. With Open Arms

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any errors, as it was not beta-read. This is also going to be a longer fic so the rating will go up in later chapters, and more tags will be added. Enjoy!

No one expected Kyoutani to show up halfway through the year, in the middle of practice. Least of all Yahaba. People just generally did not get along with the spiker, and Yahaba was no exception. In fact, he probably hated Kyoutani the most.

 

So when he showed up one day with no explanation, and no apology, Yahaba had expected him to be turned away. Instead he was invited in with open arms. Oikawa-senpai literally opened his arms to him as though he was going to hug him. And as with all of Oikawa’s decisions, everyone else just just followed along, albeit with several sarcastic remarks to keep his ego in check.

 

Kyoutani showed up for practice fairly regularly after that, much to Yahaba’s dismay, and although he continually pissed off everyone in his general vicinity, having him at practice slowly just became part of their routine. Everyone put up with him, and if he ever had any actual issues, Iwaizumi made sure to be nearby. He was still very wary of Oikawa but to be fair that may have been more common sense than anything else. Oikawa _was_ sneaky. He just usually had everyone’s best interests at heart.

 

Yahaba, however, did not. He wasn’t sure if it was the fact that Kyoutani had walked out on them in the first place, or that he had so nonchalantly came back to practice, or maybe even just the way he acted when he was at practice, but Yahaba hated him. He hated the way he had almost no respect for anyone else or their hard work. He hated that Kyoutani would show up late. Just seeing him in the hallways was enough to make his blood start to boil. What he hated most of all though, was how no one else seemed to hate him as much as Yahaba did.

 

Of course when Kyoutani made a rude comment, Matsukawa-san and Hanamaki-san would get upset, but it seemed they would put it out of their minds almost immediately and get back to joking around and making sarcastic remarks. In fact, it had gotten to the point where other people had started to notice how much worse this was for Yahaba. Oikawa-san had pulled him aside before practice one day and talked to him about how important it was for a leader to remain calm.

 

Even as they sat in the gym today, doing their stretches, Yahaba could feel Kyoutani enter the gym (late as usual) and pick a corner to himself to stretch, and couldn’t help but glare at him.

 

“Wow, you seriously need to chill.”

 

Yahaba snapped out of his fantasy, in which he was yelling into Kyoutani’s face about punctuality, and looked up at Watari who just shook his head bemusedly. It had become a bad habit of Yahaba’s to zone out like this.

 

“What?” He said rather defensively. Watari looked like he was restraining himself from rolling his eyes.

 

“Didn’t Oikawa-san _just_ talk to you about relaxing around Kyoutani?”

 

Yahaba bristled at that. “How am I supposed to relax around him?!” He fired back, trying to strike a happy medium between whispering and yelling. “He’s ready to attack at any minute! He’s just a Grade-A Asshole.”

 

Watari giggled.

 

“Oh shut up, you know what I mean. Why is he even here? Why does Oikawa-san want him here, and why does he even bother to show up?! And for that matter, how are you guys all putting up with it?!” Yahaba grumbled to the floor as he stretched.

 

“You know why, Yahaba. Oikawa-san wants him here because he’s good, and he needs practice, and we’re all getting along with him because the captain asked us to.” He spoke in that overly patient voice he always used when trying to calm Yahaba down, which only made it ten times more annoying. As an afterthought he added “which is what you should be trying to do too.”

 

Yahaba bristled again. “I’m trying, Watari, he just pisses me off so goddamn much.”

 

Watari just hummed in response, which was good because it was at this point that the coach called them all together. Even Kyoutani begrudgingly made his way over.

 

“Alright, everyone!” He began once they had all gathered in the center of the gym. “The Spring High is coming up, and we have a lot of work to do if we’re going to be ready for it! Everyone should be practicing their serves. Oikawa’s are good, but we can’t only rely on him to get us points that way. We all have to make it a challenge. Our recieves are pretty stable, but we can always do better. We do well against teams that are pretty good, but when we come up against a really powerful spiker like Ushijima Wakatoshi, or a really quick one like Karasuno’s number 10, we need to be able to receive those as well. Other than that, we’ll be doing individual practice. Work on things that you know you need work on. In some cases we may bring those things to your attention. Alright, that’s it. Give it your all today!”

 

And with that, the dispersed. Predictably, Kyoutani wanted to practice spiking, something that Oikawa-san had been indulging him in fairly regularly. Only, because he was Kyoutani, he was unwilling or unable to actually ask for a favor from Oikawa-san, and instead opted, like usual, to stand around awkwardly and wait for Oikawa-san to notice him and get the hint.

 

Today though, when Oikawa-san turned around after chatting with the coaches for a moment and saw Kyoutani waiting, he apparently had something else in mind.

 

“Yahaba-kun~,” he called over in his sing-songy voice that Yahaba had learnt meant trouble. “Set for Mad Dog-chan for a bit would you?”

 

It was hard to tell who was more adamantly opposed to this idea. While Yahaba prepared a good reason as to why he couldn’t oblige, Watari ducked his head, looking suspiciously like he was hiding a smile. Fortunately, (or unfortunately) Kyoutani immediately interjected, polite as usual.

 

“I don’t want to spike his weak-ass tosses. That’s not even good practice.” He grumbled loudly, annoyance clear in his voice. Unfortunately, Oikawa-san was always one step ahead.

 

“Ah! Mad Dog-chan! Are you saying that my tosses are special? You will only hit my tosses? I must say I’m honored! What do you like best about them?” Oikawa-san looked like he was ready to continue at length, and Watari’s shoulders were shaking in what must now have been suppressed laughter. Kyoutani looked like he had just been hit in the face with a baseball bat, his face getting redder and eyes widening in surprise. It was a good look on him.

 

Wait, what?

 

Before Yahaba could ponder that disturbing thought any further, Kyoutani was grumbling something under his breath. It was hard to catch from so many feet away, but Yahaba thought he managed to make out the words _fine_ , and _nothing special_ before he stomped away toward the net.

 

Yahaba turned towards Oikawa-san, ready to gently protest, but the elder silenced him with a look that said _I know exactly what you were going to say to try and get out of it, and I highly recommend you rethink that strategy._ It was an effective look.

 

Resigned to his fate, Yahaba made his way over to where Kyoutani was already impatiently waiting for him, trying to ignore the way his blood was already starting to heat up. Maybe that was Oikawa-san’s plan. Maybe this was some sort of exposure therapy,

 

Surprisingly, practicing with Kyoutani was not as disastrous as he’d anticipated. It was kind of similar to practicing with any other spiker on the team, albeit with a much much greater amount of tension between them. They quickly began a rhythm. Yahaba would set a ball to him, and instead of giving constructive criticism, like a normal teammate would do, he would say something like “That was complete shit. How could you expect me to hit that? It was way too fucking high.”

 

To which Yahaba would politely respond “Go fuck yourself. Maybe if you were any good at volleyball you would be able to score a single fucking point.”

 

And they would begin again, Yahaba making a point to toss a little bit lower, and Kyoutani making a point not to thank him for it, or mention it at all.

 

When the coach called for practice to be over, Yahaba turned back to Kyoutani, to say something, only to find him already walking away. He didn’t bother to help clean up or say goodbye to anyone and was out the door before almost anyone noticed. Except Oikawa-san. Yahaba turned in time to see him watching Kyoutani disappear out the door, before Oikawa-san caught him staring and sent over one of his trademark too-big-to-be-real smiles and flashed him a peace sign.

 

Yahaba turned away from him when Watari came up to him from behind and bracingly said “well you didn’t kill each other, so I would count this as a win!”

 

Yahaba turned to look at his friend who was now patting him on the shoulder and attempting to calm the storm that he knew was raging inside of Yahaba with a placating smile. It did not work.

 

“Fuck him.” Yahaba seethed, following Watari as he turned to start helping cleaning up. “Fuck him, fuck him, fuck him!”

 

“Yeah I bet…” He heard Watari mumble to the ground as he picked up volleyballs.

 

Yahaba turned to face him, defensively confused. “What?” He questioned.

 

Watari looked at him like he hadn’t meant to be heard. “Uhh… Fuck him?”

 

“Yeah.” Yahaba knew that he had missed something, but at this point he was too annoyed to bother with it. “Fuck him. Goddamnit! Fuck him!”

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Watari breathe out a sigh of relief, his posture relaxing.


	2. With Boiling Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More pissed off Yahaba!! Nothing graphic at all yet, but I feel the need to warn you all that the rating may go up in later chapters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta-read, so sorry for any mistakes!

Yahaba was starting to get really pissed off.

 

It was a given that he had always been annoyed by Kyoutani and that he would even go out of his way to avoid being near him for any reason, but lately he had a sneaking suspicion that Kyoutani was doing the same thing to him. Which was unacceptable.

 

Yahaba was an attentive student, a generally kind person, and a caring friend to many. He had never done anything that he could think of to aggravate Kyoutani more than anyone else generally did just by being alive, but after he saw Kyoutani ducking into a side corridor for the fourth time in two days, he was forced to conclude that yes, Kyoutani was avoiding him.  And after spending an entire math period thinking of reasons why, instead of listening to his lecture on geometry, he was forced to go to Watari for advice at lunch. Well, maybe he also wanted to rant.

 

Slipping out of his classroom and politely declining a couple of invitations to eat lunch with girls from his class, Yahaba wound his way outside until he found himself plopping down on the grass next to Watari, who had already started on his lunch.

 

“Kyoutani’s avoiding me.”

 

“Imagine that.” Came Watari’s flat voice, not even bothering to look up from his bento as Yahaba flopped down beside him.

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“Yahaba,” he started, lowering his chopsticks to look him exasperatedly in the eye, “are you kidding? You publicly hate him. It was a miracle that you managed to practice with him the other day without one of you throwing punches. The tension in the air was so thick, I thought Kindaichi was going to suffocate.”

 

“Okay, but even if he was just avoiding me because he seriously hates me, which I don’t buy for a second by the way because he would never _avoid_ someone for that, he’d just punch them or something. _Even_ then, why would he start avoiding me now? He’s never ducked out of my way before and we’ve _always_ hated each other.”

 

Watari shrugged. “I dunno man, maybe you just didn’t notice it before. I’m just saying that it’s not surprising is all. And for the record, I said you hated him not he hated you.”

 

“Oh, what, like he _doesn’t_ hate me?” Yahaba said, raising his eyebrows skeptically.

 

“Not any more than he hates anyone else. You’re the one who’s so much more over-the-top about him than anyone else. It’s not like he yells at _you_ any more than anyone else.”

 

“Wh- I- I’m not _over-the-top_ about him!” Yahaba sputtered indignantly. “He just really pisses me off!”

 

“Sure, fine,” Watari began dismissively, “but he pisses you off more than he pisses anyone else off. And he doesn’t seem any more pissed off at you than anyone else. That’s all I’m saying.” He finished his little speech by waving around his chopsticks, as though it could dispel Yahaba’s foul mood.

 

But for some reason, that was even more frustrating. The idea that Kyoutani was just nonchalantly regarding Yahaba with the same disdain he had for (apparently) everyone, but Yahaba was taking it so personally, was infuriating. Why was he taking it so _personally_?

 

In the end, he left lunch more upset and with even fewer answers than he’d arrived with.

* * *

 

By the time practice rolled around, Yahaba had concluded that it was best to put all of this Kyoutani nonsense out of his mind, which was apparently exactly what Kyoutani did in regards to him. Watari was always telling him to relax and let it go, and Yahaba had officially resolved to do just that.

 

Thankfully, since practice the other day, Yahaba had not been forced to work with Kyoutani, and he was far too thankful for it to push his luck and ask Oikawa-san _why_. He had a not-completely-irrational fear that if he brought it up at all, Oikawa-san would don his biggest smile and say something like “What a great idea Yahaba-kun!” Which would make it no one’s fault but his own when he had to spend another practice setting for the biggest asshole of all time.

 

The safest bet would just be to practice serves, which is what the coaches had asked of them anyways, since everyone (with the exception of Oikawa-san) could use it. So, true to his internal promise, Yahaba took a few deep breaths, walked in, and sat down next to Watari to begin stretching. They chatted idly for a few minutes, and when Kyoutani walked in, Yahaba actively tried to relax himself and look away from where Kyoutani had chosen to sit which was, thankfully, very far away from him. Watari gave him an impressed look, and continued chattering on about their upcoming geometry test as though worried that if he were to directly mention Yahaba’s behaviour, the spell would be broken.

 

When he was sufficiently warmed up, Yahaba gravitated towards the ball cart and began to slowly empty it, one at a time. His serves were definitely improving, although that wasn’t really saying much considering how bad they used to be. It wasn’t until he had completely emptied the cart and had to walk around to collect all of the balls that he noticed Kyoutani on the opposite side of the gym, _voluntarily practicing receives with Watari_ . _Instead of spiking_.

 

He had to blink a few times to be sure of what he was seeing.

 

Kyoutani never spent practice time doing anything other than running and spiking if he could help it, and yet here he was, choosing to be around another person, in order to practice something that he generally deemed unimportant. If Yahaba wasn’t sure that he was being avoided before, he certainly was now. But because he could never really be _too_ sure, he walked over to the other side of the gym to offer to set for Matsukawa-san and Hanamaki-san.

 

Kyoutani left almost immediately, barely glancing over at Yahaba before grunting something about endurance training and going for a run, and leaving Yahaba to try and pretend that his blood was not boiling beneath the surface. If he wasn’t careful, that would soon become his default. Yahaba immediately resolved to confront him after practice, and when he saw Kyoutani leave before anyone else again, he made his move, slipping away before cleanup.

 

He burst loudly through the door to find Kyoutani, sweaty and startled with his shirt in his hands.

 

“Why are you avoiding me?”

 

“Wh- I’m not.” Kyoutani gritted out. He turned back towards his locker, but not before Yahaba caught a telltale hint of pink on his cheeks. Was Kyoutani blushing? He got caught up looking Kyoutani over and it took a second too long for him to respond.

 

“Yes you are. I’m not stupid Kyoutani, you’ve been avoiding me since that practice.” He definitely didn’t need to specify which one.

 

“I’m _not_ avoiding you.” Kyoutani growled, determinedly looking away from Yahaba. “Why would you even care, anyways? You hate me.” He spoke the last bit so icily that Yahaba swore he could feel a chill sweep over the room.

 

“Wh- I-” It was his turn to be caught off guard, and Yahaba was not sure how to respond to that. For some reason he kept feeling the need to deny it, and he barely caught himself every time.

 

He heard Kyoutani huff out a scoff when he was unable to come up with anything and immediately, Yahaba felt himself snap.

 

He stalked over to Kyoutani, who turned around in surprise and used a hand on his chest to slam him into the lockers behind. Kyoutani appeared to be momentarily stunned into silence.

 

“Just. Stop. Avoiding me.” Yahaba growled, looking down slightly to glare into Kyoutani’s eyes.

 

He had expected Kyoutani to do something, _anything_. Maybe shove him backwards and yell at him. What he had not expected was for him to freeze, as though completely in shock, and begin blushing profusely.

 

Suddenly the air was too thick, and he began to understand what Watari had said to him at lunch about suffocating in it. He felt as though his blood was no longer flowing smoothly through him, but buzzing around as though vibrating. He could feel warmth flooding through him, making his stomach squirm and his face burn, when abruptly he realized that his hand was still on Kyoutani’s chest.

 

He retracted his hand as though stung and pushed himself backwards. Desperate to get out of the situation, he turned and walked briskly out of the door yelling behind him “I mean it!” to make it seem as though he weren’t fleeing.

 

He was definitely fleeing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you see any mistakes, as this is not beta-read!


	3. With Complete Normalcy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well this chapter is a little short, but it's also a little early so I think it evens out. Plus I've been kinda bookin' on writing this so you can expect another chapter pretty soon. Like too soon tbh.

After the locker room incident, Yahaba couldn’t think straight. He didn’t really remember walking back to the gym, and yet he suddenly found himself standing inside without any direction. What he really wanted to do was go home and lay down on his bed until his head stopped buzzing, but he couldn’t very well leave again right after he came back. Not to mention that he would have to go back to the locker room, and he had no idea if Kyoutani had left yet. Just the thought of being alone in a room with him again was enough to make Yahaba’s nerves start buzzing again.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

He turned around suddenly to find Watari and Kunimi leaning against the wall behind him, drinking water.

 

“Uhh… What?”

 

Watari took a step closer as Kunimi peered silently over his water bottle. “Why are you just standing there? I thought you already went home.”

 

Yahaba kind of wanted to tell him exactly what had just happened in the locker room, but at the same time he wasn’t sure that he could put it into words. Besides, he didn’t really want to see the look on any of their faces (especially Watari’s) when he told a story that began with _‘so I was going to yell at Kyoutani for something that I have no actual proof that he was doing… ’_

 

It was probably better to make something up.

 

“Uhh I went to get a drink of water.”

 

Watari looked down at the floor next to him skeptically. “Without your water bottle.”

 

Yahaba could feel his face heating up, and desperately tried to calm down. “Well, that’s why I came back.”

 

“So are you going to… Get your water bottle now?” Yahaba could feel Kunimi’s smirk that he was desperately trying to hide behind his own water bottle, and he was torn between annoyance and embarrassment at being caught at being such an airhead. He must have looked really stupid right now. Nevertheless, he saw his chance at at exit and took it.

 

Bending down to grab his water bottle Yahaba put on as real of a smile as he could muster. “Okay guys, I’m heading out now. See you tomorrow!”

 

Watari looked at him with wide eyes. “Yeah man, maybe that’s a good idea.”

 

Restraining himself from frowning at Watari, Yahaba made his way back to the locker room, feeling for the second time in as many minutes, as though he was fleeing a crime scene.

 

Kyoutani had to be gone by now right?

 

Silently thanking whatever gods might be responsible for it, Yahaba opened the door to find an empty locker room. He wasted no time in changing out of his gym clothes and left at breakneck speed for home.

* * *

 

“Shigeru, come downstairs! Dinner’s ready!”

 

“Kay!” He heard himself yell back. Despite having come straight home and laid in bed fully clothed for the past half hour, Yahaba didn’t feel right. He felt like his insides were itchy, as though he had been laying around all day and needed exercise, and yet he was much too exhausted to even get out of bed to start his homework. Counting down from three, he heaved himself up and made his way downstairs to find his mother and little sister just sitting down to eat.

 

“Where’s dad?” He asked as he sat down to join them.

 

“Oh he’s got to work late tonight.” His mother said, airily. “We’ll just have to save him some. How was school today?”

 

Yahaba tried to think back to school. It seemed like such a long time ago, as though a couple of days had passed since he’d been in any classes. All he could think about was the incident with Kyoutani, and it was definitely not something that he was going to share with his mother. “Um… It was good, I guess.”

 

His mother looked up interestedly and peered at him over her chopsticks. “Well that doesn’t sound very definitive, does it? Did something happen?”

 

“No, not really… ” Why did that sound like such a lie? Today had really not been abnormal. Even his encounter with Kyoutani was… Well it didn’t feel normal, but he and Kyoutani fought all the time. On paper, this was a very normal day. His mother did not look convinced, but thankfully she didn’t press the issue, and just shifted her attention to his sister instead.

 

“What about you Keiko?”

 

His sister, who had been vibrating in her seat in anticipation of being asked this exact question, immediately jumped into a long winded spiel about how she had made a new friend, a transfer student apparently, and they had made plans to get ice cream tomorrow after school. Yahaba listened to her talk, relaxing into the normalcy of the dinner, and by the time he had returned to his room, he had regained enough control over his thoughts to work on his homework.

 

He went to bed that night, resolving to be super normal tomorrow, to make up for earlier today. He was going to be so normal that they wouldn’t know what hit them. Kyoutani could do whatever he wanted; Yahaba wasn’t going to let some weird moment get in the way of him enjoying his life.

  
With that calming thought, he drifted off into a deep sleep, and if he dreamed anything about Kyoutani and his stupid sweaty muscular chest, he didn’t remember it come morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta-read, like always, so let me know if you see any mistakes!!  
> My HQ tumblr is toorujime.tumblr.com if you wanna come chat about Haikyuu!!


	4. Without Being (Too) Weird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yahaba can't remember how he usually acts. What is normal?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry this took a little longer than advertised. I hope you enjoy it!

Yahaba spent most of the next day focusing on his studies. He did his best to be as normal as possible throughout the day, but the more he thought about it the harder it became. He just didn’t usually have to think so hard about his actions. Eventually, though, he found that the best cure for overthinking everything was to keep himself constantly busy, which he did. All day.

 

Yahaba was fairly popular. Certainly not “Oikawa-san Status” popular, but he had a few admirers, and even more friends. Aside from Watari, who was in another class and the volleyball team, most of whom were in other grades, he also had a fair number of students from his own classes to talk to.

 

There were a few guys from his gym class that he was friendly with, and he sat in the middle of a rather large group of girls in his English class, all of whom seemed to have indoctrinated him into their group after the seating chart had put him smack dab in the center of their circle. He often found himself wondering if he should find their constant chattering in the mornings annoying, and yet it kind of set a nice background music to his life. He would occasionally add in a comment or two, but mostly he would just listen while getting out his things, and taking a bite of the newest pastry that Misaki-kun brought in. She was a baker, and she nearly always brought in some sort of pastry to share in the morning to get their feedback.

 

And so Yahaba found himself using a tactic that was the absolute opposite of what he had been doing the day before: he struck up conversations with everyone, he paid the utmost attention in class, and he made certain to be around people all of the time.

 

To Kyoutani’s credit, he did see him a couple of times throughout the day, and it seemed as though the delinquent was no longer avoiding him. Unfortunately for Yahaba, getting what he wanted had the (for some reason _unexpected_ ) consequence of actually _seeing_ Kyoutani more. Yahaba made sure that he was always busy whenever he saw Kyoutani approaching, and even then he felt his face heat up. _What was wrong with him?_

 

He wished that he could talk to someone about it, but he was determined not to mention it to Watari.

 

“What’s with you today dude?”

 

They had seen each other several times in the halls so far that day, but it wasn’t until lunch that Watari seemed to think that something was up again. Yahaba was immediately nervous. He thought that he had been doing a good job of acting normal until now.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean,” Watari started, waving his hand airily in front of him, “You haven’t mentioned Kyoutani once today. What happened to ‘he pisses me off,’ and ‘why does he even show up,’ and, more recently, ‘he’s avoiding me, Watari, I _swear_.’ Hm?”

 

Yahaba visibly cringed at that. _Apparently_ , at some point, his version of normal became to complain constantly to Watari about Kyoutani. That was a nice revelation. How was Watari still even friends with him?

 

Instead of pursuing that train of thought, he opted to try and wipe the frown off of his face and shrug nonchalantly. “He stopped avoiding me.”

 

Watari looked at him skeptically. “So that’s it, huh? You complain nonstop about him for weeks, and then when he mysteriously starts avoiding you for a grand total of _one day_ , as soon as he stops, you guys are peachy-keen-bffs?”

 

“Wh- What are you-” Yahaba sputtered indignantly. “We are not- We’re not _peachy-keen-bffs_ , Watari, what does that even mean? I’m just trying to do what you always tell me to do. I’m trying not to get all riled up. If Oikawa-san wants him on the team, then I’ll get used to it like everyone else.” Yahaba finished defensively, focusing intently on his bento.

 

“Mmm,” Watari hummed pensively, lifting more rice into his mouth.

 

They sat in silence for a moment, Yahaba allowing himself to relax in the nice weather outside. It was peaceful. It was the first part of the day that Yahaba had allowed himself some time to relax, right up until Watari ruined it.

 

“I don’t buy it.” Watari burst out, turning to face Yahaba. “What did you do? Hhh-” He gasped a little. “What did _he_ do?”

 

“Nothing!” Yahaba looked away. He could feel the blood rushing into his face. This was getting dangerously close to a subject that he most definitely could not talk about. For some reason.

 

Unfortunately, Watari was persistent, and Yahaba could tell that he was not going to let this one go. The last thing he needed was for Watari to ask him about all of this at practice while Kyoutani was no longer avoiding him, so he opted for the lesser evil.

 

“Okay- Look- I may have gone after practice yesterday and told Kyoutani to stop avoiding me. But it was fine! I didn’t like- punch him or anything!” Yahaba couldn’t stop fiddling with his shirt. “I just told him to cut it out, and he did. So I guess that’s… Progress.”

 

“Uh huh.” Watari was clearly not convinced. “So you’re telling me that nothing out of the ordinary happened, you just yelled at him like usual, and yet suddenly you are completely at peace with the world?”

 

Yahaba wanted to say yes, but somehow it just  seemed like such a lie. How could he phrase it so that Watari would understand? ‘ _I shoved him up against the lockers and he looked at me really weirdly, oh and also he was shirtless so I’ve decided to forgive him, or at least avoid talking to him._ ’ Yahaba could never say that. It would give Watari the wrong impression, and besides, he could never bring himself to say that. He wished that Watari would just take him at face value and drop it, so he tried a casual guilt trip.

 

“Come on Watari, I’m just trying to do what you said to do. Please just drop it?”

 

Watari looked at him skeptically for a moment but then shrugged, seemingly deciding that torturing Yahaba was getting old, and hummed in agreement before turning back to his bento.

* * *

 

By the time practice came around, Yahaba had prepared himself for being in the same room as Kyoutani. Seeing him in the locker room before practice was a bit of a shock, as he couldn’t remember ever seeing Kyoutani arrive on time before, but he quickly bussied himself with changing into his gym clothes. And as it had been working for him all day so far, he struck up a conversation with the person nearest to him. Lucky Kindaichi.

 

When he got to the gym he sat down next to Watari and began to stretch, trying to pretend that he wasn’t incredibly aware of exactly where Kyoutani was relative to him at all times.

 

Things were actually going rather smoothly for Yahaba, until Oikawa-san decided that this would be another perfect opportunity for him to practice tossing to Kyoutani.

 

The line between what was normal and what was weird was seriously beginning to blur for Yahaba. As Oikawa-san called him over he could feel the dread filling his stomach, like molten lead, and yet it was so different from the usual white hot anger he generally felt when forced to work with Kyoutani. Instead of trying to get out of it today, Yahaba just tried not to make a scene as he walked over to the net and for whatever reason Kyoutani followed suit. His deepening frown was the only indicator that he even understood who would be tossing to him.

 

When Yahaba looked up while grabbing a ball from the cart, he saw that several of his teammates had turned to look at him in confusion. Watari himself was giving him a questioning look. None of them, however, compared to Oikawa-san, who was watching intently with an almost-frown on his face, not even bothering to hide it with his usual sugary-sweet smile.

 

Resigned to tossing to Kyoutani in near silence, Yahaba spent the rest of the practice trying to purposely ignore and avoid Watari’s knowing looks. What was the world coming to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you see any mistakes! 
> 
> My haikyuu!! tumblr is toorujime.tumblr.com if you wanna chat about these dorks.
> 
> Also I'mma just warn y'all that the next update will likely get this story really going :) You can look forward to me posting it probably on Sunday.


	5. With Complete Shock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kyoutani is just a misunderstood little puppy, and all I want in this lifetime is to give him a hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rating hasn't gone up yet, but there is a little reference to a praise kink, so if that bothers you, beware.

Setting aside the weird looks that Yahaba was getting from his teammates, this was actually shaping up to be one of the best practices that they had had in a long time. Kyoutani was too busy spiking to get into fights with anyone else, and although he and Yahaba would yell at each other occasionally, they seemed to have some sort of unspoken agreement to not let it escalate into a full blown fight. In fact, from an outside perspective, he could even see how this would look relatively normal.

 

As practice went on, his teammates all seemed to lose interest. Yes, it was weird how willing Kyoutani and Yahaba had been to practice with each other, given their months of absolutely hating each other's guts, but the grumbling they were doing was almost like usual, if a little bit muted.

 

Not for Yahaba though. He could feel the tension simmering around them, the same tension that Watari had so aptly referred to as ‘suffocating.’ It really was. Every time he spoke to ( _read: yelled at_ ) Kyoutani, he could feel a little bit of adrenaline pump through veins, as though he was worried about what he would say and how it would sound and what Kyoutani would think of it and how he would respond and how _that_ would sound. And he _was_ worried about all of those things. It was exhausting. Before, when Yahaba used to obsess about what Kyoutani was doing, it would be with a righteous indignation, that, even if they did not particularly feel it, the other team members would understand. Now, however, he was absolutely intent on keeping the rest of the team out of his emotions, and he wasn’t quite sure of why.

 

As much as Yahaba wanted things to go completely back to normal, it seemed that that was not in the cards. Several times, Yahaba caught himself zoning out in his thoughts, and the resulting botched toss was sent flying towards Kyoutani. When the man hit the ground with a _thud_ he expected, at the very least, to have angry black lined eyes boring holes in his head, while pink lips yelled at him about being _better_ , with no real helpful ideas. What he did not expect, was a loud grumble, and a stare in the other direction as he walked back to get into position. It was unsettling for Yahaba, but at least he could take solace in the fact that no one seemed to be paying enough attention to them anymore to take note of it.

 

 _Although_ , he thought wryly, _it could all be in my head. Maybe no one thinks this is weird because it’s not weird. Maybe I’m just being crazy._

 

One glance towards Oikawa-san completely nixed that idea. The older boy was at the edge of the court, holding his water bottle, but his eyes were completely focused on Kyoutani, squinting as if seeing him for the first time. It reminded Yahaba of the face he made when watching other teams play against each other, sizing them up and figuring out their strengths and weaknesses. Yahaba almost smiled at the thought of what Kyoutani would do if he saw Oikawa-san looking at him like that. _Cute_.

 

It was at that moment, that Oikawa-san looked directly over at him, breaking his train of thought, and sent him one of those dazzling pearly white smiles. Yahaba felt like a deer caught in the headlights, and he had one of those thoughts that you have right before you mentally slap yourself for being crazy: _Oikawa-san can read minds_.

 

When his senpai made no move to even pretend to look away or be busy doing something else, Yahaba forced himself to turn around and go get another ball to set to Kyoutani, being extra aware of what was normal and what was not.

 

After a minute or two, he heard the telltale _smack_ of a volleyball hitting the back of his senpai’s head and the telltale screech that followed it, closely followed by Iwaizumi-san’s voice coming across the court to berate their captain.

 

“If you think I’m going to stay late to practice with you, after you _sat around_ all of practice on the sidelines-”

 

“Iwa-chan I’m not _sitting around_ -”

 

Yahaba mentally thanked Iwaizumi senpai, relaxing a little bit inside.

 

When practice ended, it went not with a bang, but with a fizzle. Hanamaki-san yelled to Matsukawa-san that they needed to get going in order to make it to the bakery before it closed, and others seemed to slowly trickle out as they finished what they were doing. Soon Watari left with a quick scrutinising glance at Yahaba and Kyoutani, and there were only four of them left in the gym.

 

Yahaba suddenly felt out of place. He hadn’t wanted to leave before, because he couldn’t figure out a way to stop setting for Kyoutani without it being weird. Now though, it was weird because he and Kyoutani were the last people in the gym, save for the ones that practically _lived_ there. Oikawa-san had certainly gotten better about taking care of himself from the stories that Yahaba had heard about him in middle school, but Iwaizumi tended to stay with him until he left anyways. And as they needed to lock up anyways, being captain and vice-captain, it was rare that anyone ever tried to stay later than them anyways.

 

Unfortunately, Yahaba was so busy trying not to think about what Oikawa-san must be thinking that he forgot to stay angry at Kyoutani for a moment, and when a well hit spike landed just inside the court on the other side of the net, he found himself whistling lowly and speaking up quietly.

 

“Nice spike.”

 

Yahaba turned to see… _Something_ in Kyoutani’s eyes. It had the heat of anger, but it didn’t seem quite so hostile. He forced himself to turn away and grab another ball from the cart, willing the heat out of his face as he did so. He could feel them all staring at him, and he wanted nothing more than to run home and burn off some of this excess energy that he was so _tired_ of feeling lately, but he knew that that would be weird, so he just continued to set for Kyoutani, who continued to spike with more enthusiasm than Yahaba thought was possible for this late in a practice.

 

After six more tosses (yes, he was counting), Yahaba went to pick up some of the balls on the other side of the net.

 

“I’m done.” He said, with more confidence than he felt.

 

Kyoutani didn’t argue, which was surprising, but not as surprising as him walking around to help collecting the balls that littered the gym. It was a pleasant surprise, but Yahaba couldn’t help wishing for the thousandth time today that things would just go back to normal and he could just hate Kyoutani in peace.

 

As Yahaba grabbed the last few and wheeled the cart into the storage room, Kyoutani took off for the locker room without saying goodbye. At least that was typical of him.

 

When he called over a goodbye to Oikawa-san and Iwaizumi-san, the former was still giving him a searching look, but at least this time he could avoid it by ducking out, which he did. Eagerly.

 

Yahaba walked to the locker room, caught, for the second day in a row, between being alone with Kyoutani or being thought of as crazy by his teammates. Again, he chose the former.

 

As he entered the locker room, he was struck with some serious Deja Vu. Kyoutani was undressing and, as luck would have it, his locker happened to be only two down from Yahaba’s. Willing himself into silence, Yahaba walked over to his locker on the other side of Kyoutani and began to undress himself, feeling that now familiar suffocating feeling that came with being close to the boy. He was so busy trying to relax that he almost missed it when Kyoutani spoke, albeit quietly.

 

“Thanks.”

 

Yahaba was the very definition of nonplussed. He turned towards Kyoutani, who without his shirt on was fighting an obvious full-body blush. “For what?”

 

“Tossing to me.” It seemed like the words were almost painful for Kyoutani, who kept his eyes steadily trained on his bag as he stuffed all of his things into it.

 

For some unknown reason, Yahaba felt the need to reciprocate, and he picked something that was also hard for him to say. Turning back to his locker he began to dig through his things for a shirt to wear home. “Your spiking is getting more accurate. It’s always been powerful, but you’re getting inside the court way more often.”

 

After a few more seconds of digging, he realized that Kyoutani had frozen and, looking over, he found himself staring directly into eyes filled with the same unplaceable heat he had sensed earlier on the court. Yahaba froze himself and took in the scene before him. Kyoutani was shirtless and still sweaty from practice, with a blush on his face that made him seem almost human.

 

Yahaba couldn’t explain what came over him, and later he would claim it to be temporary insanity, caused by overexertion, but he suddenly found himself speaking again.

 

“You’re a talented player, Kyoutani.”

 

Before his brain could catch up to what was happening, Yahaba found himself pinned against the singular locker that sat between the two of theirs, with Kyoutani’s lips pressed against his own, one hand held above his head and the other hovering in midair, unsure of what to do.

 

Soon it became irrelevant, however, because Kyoutani was pulling back. He took one look at the pure shock on Yahaba’s face before grabbing his still-open bag and shirt and practically sprinting out of the locker room.

 

Yahaba stood there, frozen for a moment before he slowly sank to the ground, fingers reaching up to feel at his lips.

 

As he heard the door slam shut behind Kyoutani he had one thought run through his mind.  


What the _shit_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rating may go up next chapter so keep an eye out for that. As always, this is not beta-read, so come let me know if there are mistakes etc. 
> 
> My haikyuu!! tumblr is toorujime.tumblr.com
> 
> Let me know what you think!!


	6. With Great Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is he seriously avoiding Yahaba AGAIN?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update took so long!!! I took a trip home, and I just could not find a good time or place to write. This one is a tad longer to make up for it, and I swear, the next update will be soon.
> 
> I bumped the rating for this chapter, as it gets a tad more racy, but nothing explicit is happening yet, I swear. I'll make it skippable when it gets more explicit. 
> 
> Again, this chapter is not beta-read so sorry for any mistakes.

Yahaba sat on the floor of the locker room with his fingers touching his lips, one thought circling his head over and over again. 

 

“What the  _ shit _ !” He muttered out loud. He felt the need to voice it, even if it was to no one. It came out a little bit louder than he had intended, which really spoke to his mental status more than the acoustics of the locker room.

 

Kyoutani had just  _ kissed  _ him. What the fuck was he thinking? Did he not understand how the whole ‘hating each other’ thing worked? Yahaba had very little experience ever hating anyone in his life, but he knew for a fact that it did not involve kissing the object of your hatred. 

 

He was pissed at Kyoutani for ruining this. For making things weird, and changing their dynamic. But some gnawing thought at the back of his mind was giving him a guilty feeling in his stomach.

 

He had egged Kyoutani on.

 

Call it temporary insanity or curiosity or whatever you like, he had seen that look in Kyoutani’s eyes and he had known that it was not anger and he had  _ still  _ tried to bring more of it out of Kyoutani. Yahaba slammed his head back against the lockers in frustration, which only served to give him a headache. He brought his knees to his chest and rested his arms across them, burying his face as though to ward off the bad feelings. 

 

His train of thought was abruptly cut off when he heard steps outside the locker room door, and he tried to pull himself together quickly. He stood up, dusted himself off and started stuffing the rest of his things in his bag.

 

“... I dunno he just-” Iwaizumi-san broke off as the door opened and he saw Yahaba. “Yo Yahaba what did you do to Kyoutani?”

 

Yahaba was temporarily distracted from pretending that he had not been listening intently. He spun around. “What?”

 

“He just practically flew by us while putting on his shirt. What happened?” Yahaba turned back to his locker. He didn’t want to be rude, but he was fairly certain that if he had to answer while looking at them, his face would be a dead giveaway. Oikawa-san was intuitive like that.

 

“I dunno, I guess he just really wanted to get home.” It didn’t even sound convincing to his own ears.

 

Iwaizumi-san looked as though he wanted to interrogate Yahaba more, but as Oikawa-san took a step forward, he fell silent. One look at the soul-searching, serious expression on Oikawa-san’s face was enough to make anyone take a step back. 

 

“Yahaba-kunnnnn~! You know I don’t like lying.” He sang in his cheeriest voice, before dropping to a more serious tone and facial expression. “I thought you two were getting along better recently.”

 

Yahaba felt his stomach drop under the weight of the subtext of that statement. 

 

Oikawa-san was trying to get them to work out their problems.

 

Oikawa-san was looking out for the team. 

 

Oikawa-san was trying to get them to nationals.

 

Yahaba was sabotaging them with petty fights.

 

“No- Yeah- We are. I’m just- I have to go.” And much the same way Kyoutani had fled moments ago, Yahaba found himself grabbing his things and bolting out the door, avoiding Oikawa-san's crestfallen concerned look and Iwaizumi-san’s confused one.

* * *

 

The day before felt like a drug induced dream. Yahaba barely remembered the walk home, and the immediate shutting of himself into his room. He came out for dinner, but after several questions from his mother that were met with silence, she stopped trying, only pausing every once in a while to look at him with vague concern. He ate very little, still feeling nauseous from the earlier emotional rollercoaster, and went to bed early.

 

Despite tucking himself into bed early, Yahaba got very little sleep. All night he was plagued with thoughts of  _ why _ and  _ what now _ ?

 

When the sun rose the next morning, Yahaba sluggishly got up He momentarily entertained the possibility of staying home sick today (his mother would probably believe it after last night), but he quickly dismissed it. Staying home would mean getting behind on schoolwork and missing volleyball practice. Plus y’know the gut wrenching guilt that plagued him after realizing how much he had been letting the team down lately. It was just hard because he still had very few answers about the day before.

 

Did that count as a confession? Probably not, though someone like Kyoutani probably didn’t do confessions. What did Yahaba have to do now? Could he just pretend that it hadn’t happened? He couldn’t imagine that Kyoutani would ever tell the team about what had happened. Maybe if he just acted normal, they would be able to go back to tolerable silence. 

 

With that calming thought in his head, Yahaba made his way to morning practice, stopping only momentarily outside the door to the locker room to take a deep breath, before pushing it open. He was fairly early, but by no means the first person to arrive. Luckily, early morning practices meant that most people were still mostly asleep and no one said more than two words to Yahaba before heading to the court. 

 

Yahaba waited.

 

And waited.

 

And waited.

 

Kyoutani never came. 

 

Yahaba was torn between being relieved at not having to deal with him yet, and feeling the guilty pit in his stomach where he sensed that Kyoutani’s absence may have been his fault. He spent the rest of practice avoiding Oikawa-san’s gaze.

* * *

 

His first class of the day was a nice reprieve from all of the anxiety inducing atmospheres that he had been in lately. The girls in his class were as loud as ever. Misaki-kun had made lemon squares, which really were good, and Yahaba was glad to see her face light up as he told her so. 

 

Yahaba threw himself into his schoolwork, and used his tried and true method of keeping busy to avoid over thinking. Several times, he thought he saw Kyoutani in the halls, but when he turned to get a better look (against all sense left in his body), he was lost in the crowd. 

 

Lunch with Watari was also much the same. Yahaba kept himself talking about the mundane, so as to not stray towards Kyoutani’s-absence-territory. He wasn’t paying all that much attention to the conversation until he told Watari about Misaki-kuns lemon squares, and Watari let out a loud groan, falling over onto the grass in an exaggerated huff.

 

“Ahhhhhh!” Watari whined, much to Yahaba’s surprise. “I want a girl baking me things to eat before class!”

 

Yahaba sniggered. “It’s not like that,” he said airily.

 

This time though, he caught it when Watari snorted and mumbled “yeah not for you,” without getting up.

 

“What? What do you mean not for me?”

 

Watari sat up at that, and returned to his meal. “You don’t like her like that.”

 

“So?”

 

“So she likes you.”

 

Yahaba looked at him in disbelief. “No she doesn’t.”

 

Watari snorted again. “Yeah, Yahaba, she does. She bakes you lemon squares, and hangs off of your every word.”

 

Yahaba paused at that, remembering how Misaki-kun had glowed almost literally, when he had praised her for her baking this morning. 

 

“No she doesn’t.” He said with finality, mostly just to be stubborn, and Watari dropped it.

* * *

 

By that evening, several things had become clear: Misaki-kun liked him, he didn’t like her back, and Kyoutani was definitely avoiding him. 

 

Yahaba couldn’t blame him, seeing as that would pretty much be what his reaction would have been, had he kissed a teammate the day before. But when Kyoutani went down a wrong stairwell to avoid him at the end of the day, Yahaba began to see something that he would have never in a million years used to describe him before. Kyoutani was kind of  _ skittish _ .

 

Laying in bed that evening before going to sleep, Yahaba recalled watching Kyoutani get red in the face upon seeing Yahaba down the (relatively empty) hall from him, and couldn’t suppress a small grin. He was so cute. Yahaba had almost waited to see when Kyoutani would emerge from the stairwell that they were both aware led only to a locked door on the roof, but he had been late to practice. He wondered how long Kyoutani had waited before venturing back out into the hall.

 

He thought too, about when Kyoutani had kissed him. It had been such a shock, but Yahaba supposed he should have seen something coming, from the look on his face when Yahaba complimented him. He could remember the feel of Kyoutani’s rough lips on his, and started to wonder what it would have been like if he had kissed him back. Solitary, in the safety of his bedroom, he imagined wrapping his arms around Kyoutani, and allowing himself to be pressed into the locker behind them. Slipping his hand under the waistband of his boxers, he wondered what kind of noises Kyoutani would make. How far would they have gone?

  
It was only later, when he was attempting to calm his erratic breathing, and drifting off to sleep that he realized how much trouble he was in.


	7. With a Little Push

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yahaba begins to sort out all of his emotional baggage. I mean... Good luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter was so late guys!! I usually try to get one out at least twice a week, but life kinda kicked my ass for a while there. I should be back on a regularly updating schedule now, and I'm going to have another chapter out incredibly soon! Thanks for sticking with me :)
> 
> As always, sorry for any mistakes, as this was not beta-read.

Yahaba spent the next morning trying not to think about what had happened last night. He reasoned over and over again that his thoughts and actions must have been stress induced, or because of something strange he had eaten the day before, but as practice ticked on and there was yet again, no sign of Kyoutani, Yahaba was alarmed to feel a sinking feeling in his stomach.

 

He couldn’t have a crush on Kyoutani. He just  _ couldn’t _ .

 

Yahaba avoided his teammates attempts at contacting him throughout the practice, feeling partially pissed off at Kyoutani for not showing up, and partially upset at himself for wanting him to. He did his best, too, to ignore the crushing guilt in the pit of his stomach for having unwittingly upset Oikawa-san’s plans for the team. He desperately wanted to get away from them, and have some time to himself, and was secretly relieved when it was time to head to class.

 

Until he got there.

 

For some reason, seeing Misaki-kun, was even more jarring than catching glimpses of Kyoutani in the hallways.

 

This morning, she was dressed in her usual school uniform, her dark brown hair held up in pigtails by two blue ribbons, and she was holding a tray of what appeared to be chocolate covered cream puffs. Yahaba had to admit that it was very cute, but for some reason that just ticked his ire up even more. When she offered him a cream puff, he accepted with his best fake expression of gratefulness but he could tell that she didn’t really buy it, and when she asked him what was wrong, he only had vague fake excuses to give.

 

Yahaba spent the rest of the class period tuning out the teacher and trying to figure out why he was so upset this morning.

 

It was just that it would be so much easier if he liked Misaki-kun. She was a great cook, and she was adorable, and she even liked Yahaba very much, if the constant worryied looks she was sending his way were any indication. She was the perfect girl to bring home to his parents. She was the exact opposite of Kyoutani in every way.

 

Why was Yahaba thinking of Kyoutani anyways? He wished he could have just gone back to the days when he blindly hated Kyoutani from a distance, before Kyoutani had ruined everything with his fucking muscly arms and rough lips and fiery eyes. When he really thought about it, all of this was Kyoutani’s fault anyways. He hadn’t asked Kyoutani to kiss him. He was just trying to get along with him, per Oikawa-san’s and Watari’s instruction. 

 

For some reason, even his lack of attraction to Misaki-kun was Kyoutani’s fault. Everything was. 

 

Yahaba managed to keep himself riled up throughout all of his morning classes, and by lunchtime he practically had flames emanating from his body. He wasn’t going to let this go. Yahaba was a fixer.

 

He found himself stalking passed acquaintances in the halls without stopping to say hi, and before he knew it Yahaba was turning the corner of building C, a mostly deserted area that he had seen Kyoutani disappear to one more than one occasion. As expected, Kyoutani was there, eating his lunch. Yahaba almost didn’t approach him; he looked so peaceful leaning against the side of the building with his head tilted back and foot tapping slowly to the music playing in his ears. 

 

But Yahaba had come with a mission, and he would be damned if he was going to leave without this issue being resolved.

 

“Hey!” He barked loud enough to be heard over the music. 

 

Kyoutani looked up, startled, and yanked his earbuds out of his ears, his eyes going comically wide. He scrambled to his feet, maybe to run away again, but Yahaba was too quick for him. In only a few strides, he had reached Kyoutani and slammed him against the the side of the building, using his forearm to hold him in place.

 

Once again, Kyoutani did nothing to push him off, and even though they had been in this position before, Yahaba still couldn’t help but feel disconcerted at the lack of violence. He mentally shook himself to dispel the thoughts that had begun to creep up on him again. The thoughts that belonged only in his bedroom, late at night, if even there.

 

“Stop skipping practice.” If Kyoutani’s eyes had gotten any wider, they would have overtaken his face. “I can’t  _ believe  _ I had to track you down again! If you keep avoiding me and skipping practice, I will do _horrible_ things to you.”

 

Kyoutani opened his mouth like he was going to reply, only to close it a second later, apparently lost for words. The action only functioned to draw Yahaba’s eyes to Kyoutani’s lips and after staring a second too long, Yahaba felt Kyoutani suck in a quick deep breath and their eyes met again.

 

For a split second, Yahaba envisioned leaning forward, pressing his lips to Kyoutani’s and worrying about everything else later, but then reality came crashing back in, and Yahaba began to listen to the voice of reason again.

 

He broke eye contact and used the arm on Kyoutani to push himself back, turning slightly to mutter “ _ fuck _ ” at the ground under his breath.

 

Knowing full well that his face was roughly the color of a ripe tomato, Yahaba turned away, grabbing his bag from where he had dropped it on the ground. He couldn’t meet Koutani’s eyes, although he could feel them boring holes into his head. Yahaba straightened up and walked away at what he was hoping was a normal pace, forcing out a quick “don’t be late,” as he rounded the corner.

* * *

 

For the rest of the day, Yahaba had a hard time concentrating. He wished that he could be angry like he was this morning, or better yet, just back how he used to be before all of this dumb Kyoutani stuff started. Instead, he found himself being interrupted in his thought processes all day by a sick sort of churning in his gut. He really wasn’t sure if Kyoutani would show up to practice at the end of the day, and the realization that he actually wanted him to, not just for the sake of the team, was making him nauseous. 

 

He had managed to explain his lateness to lunch to Watari without mentioning Kyoutani at all, but what about practice after class? Surely if Kyoutani did show up, it would be obvious that something was wrong. What would he do? Would he try to talk to Yahaba? Yahaba wasn’t sure he would be able to handle it, and it was becoming clearer and clearer why he didn’t want to talk to Watari about it. 

 

Yahaba spent a good amount of time stressing about it until practice, and when he walked into the locker room to see almost everyone except for Kyoutani, he was simultaneously relieved and annoyed. He had promised to do horrible things to Kyoutani if he didn’t show up, but he honestly did not have any idea what those things would be. He had just hoped that the threat and confrontation would be enough to make Kyoutani remedy his behaviour, seeing as it had worked before. What would he do if Kyoutani called his bluff?

 

He was mulling it over in the gym, stretching silently while Watari chatted with Kindaichi next to him when Kyoutani walked in. There was a moment of silence when everyone looked up to see Kyoutani standing just inside the doorway and Yahaba’s eyes caught his in a tense blank stare, but he quickly looked back down, afraid to be caught staring, and Watari (ever the team player) invited Kyoutani to come stretch with them. Yahaba felt himself let out a sigh of relief, as Kyoutani settled down on Watari’s other side.

 

The scared look on Kindaichi’s face had Kunimi holding back laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come chat with me at toorujime.tumblr.com, and let me know if there were any mistakes. Hope you enjoyed it!!


	8. With Some Introspection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yahaba finally gets a little peace to figure out his feelings. Expect Introspection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, not-beta read, so let me know if there are any mistakes. Also there is a tiny bit more M-rated content in this chapter, but not much. In future chapters I will warn before explicit parts.

 

More than a week passed by without incident. 

 

At first when Kyoutani came back to practice he was noticeably more wary of other people than before, possibly even more so than when he came back the first time, despite only having missed a couple of practices. He treated everyone like he did Oikawa-san, assuming a fighting stance every time someone spoke to him unexpectedly. Yahaba knew that he was waiting for someone to bring up the kiss, or whatever had been going on between him and Kyoutani recently. He couldn’t help but feel a pang of annoyance at the thought that Kyoutani believed that he would immediately tell the team, like Yahaba was some sort of uncontrollable loudmouth, but it was quickly overshadowed by guilt as he watched Kyoutani flinch away from Hanamaki-san for the fourth time in a row.

 

Slowly, Kyoutani relaxed (as much as Kyoutani could ever relax) back into practices. Yahaba still felt a little bit of guilt at not letting Kyoutani know that there was nothing to worry about, but seeing him sink back into his usual self eased Yahaba’s conscience. He hadn’t thought that things would ever get back to being this normal.

 

Of course, things were still not completely how they were before. Sure, Kyoutani was back to inadvertently terrifying Kindaichi, and the tension between them had eased somewhat, but Yahaba now found himself incredibly aware of where Kyoutani was at any given time. Well… Maybe he had always been this aware of the spiker. He was just now more… aware that he was aware of him. And with this newfound awareness of his actions came a responsibility to pretend that he wasn’t. Yahaba would take great care to not look at Kyoutani excessively or openly, and for his part, Kyoutani seemed to be making sure that they never found themselves alone in a room together, a fact that Yahaba both felt grateful for, and resented. 

 

The thing was that as Yahaba had begun to think about his actions and feelings over the course of the next week (mainly because he had more peace in his life, and was able to be introspective more often), he realized some profound things about himself. 

 

Most importantly, he was gay. 

 

This revelation had been preceded by an internet search that left his blood boiling, his hand moving rapidly underneath his pants in the dead of night, and followed by an embarrassing amount of crying that he would never admit to. He resolved to clear his internet history.

 

Coming in at a very close second was the fact that for some reason he was incredibly attracted to Kyoutani. 

 

_ Kyoutani _ .

 

A week ago, every time Yahaba had thought about it, he had wanted to bang his head into a table, but now he was trying to become more at peace with himself. It felt weird to be knowingly keeping this big of a secret from everyone he knew and cared about, but he felt so much more control over it, now that he knew exactly what he was hiding and why he was hiding it. He became more practiced at steering conversations with Watari away from dangerous waters, and he was able to become the friends with Misaki-kun that he thought he was in the first place. Yahaba got the feeling that she still liked him, though, and he tried not to lead her on as much as possible. 

 

After a week of no outside drama in his life, Yahaba was finally beginning to be able to take a step back, assessing things like he did on the court, and he found himself a little melancholic about it.

 

Now that his relationship with the spiker had come full circle, Yahaba was a little bit disappointed with how it had gone. Not that he could ever see himself, like… going to farmer's markets with Kyoutani or anything like that but- Well it seemed like it was his only real chance to figure himself out. He was attracted to Kyoutani. Kyoutani was attracted to him. That in itself seemed like a miracle, not to mention that he felt fairly confident that despite his assholish tendencies, this was something that Kyoutani would not divulge to others. Looking back, Yahaba was disappointed with how he had handled it. He should have gotten a few more kisses out of it.

 

It was a moot point, though. If kissing Kyoutani once was enough for him to skip out on practice, then Yahaba coming back to kiss him again a week later would surely mean the permanent end of all normalcy. But that didn’t stop Yahaba from daydreaming about slamming Kyoutani against that singular locker that stood between theirs and rutting against him.

 

Although they had seemed to come to some sort of nonverbal agreement not to mention what had happened between them, Yahaba still indulged himself in the occasional glance at Kyoutani in the locker room. He couldn’t help it, watching the spiker take off his shirt to reveal muscles glistening with sweat. He did make sure to check that no one was paying attention first, though. 

 

On Thursday, after morning practice, he caught Kyoutani doing the same thing to him, though much less subtly. He paused when he noticed Kyoutani looking, and when he caught his eye, the other boy turned an adorable shade of bright red. 

 

In another bout of complete insanity, that only seemed to occur with Kyoutani, Yahaba gave his most devious smile and winked at the spiker before putting on a shirt and grabbing his bag. He didn’t spare a glance at Kyoutani as he walked out the door, though he spent the morning feeling incredibly giddy, replaying the memory. He couldn’t help the little bounce in his step every time he remembered that he had the power to make Kyoutani turn red like that.

* * *

 

Yahaba should have known that this calmness was too good to be true, though.

 

Trouble came during afternoon practice in the form of Oikawa Tooru, walking into the gym with a skip in his step. 

 

Yahaba hadn’t been paying much attention this morning, or he would have noticed Oikawa-san talking to Watari on the sidelines instead of practicing, but he pieced it together when his senpai made an announcement, and Watari didn’t look remotely surprised.

 

“Okay!” Oikawa-san began with a smile, clapping his hands together in front of him. “Every year we take some time to do activities as a group, for team bonding-” Yahaba groaned internally, “so this weekend we’re all going to be staying over at Makki’s house, watching movies, roasting marshmallows-”

 

“Do we have to?” Muttered Kunimi, saving both Yahaba and Kyoutani from having to ask.

 

Oikawa-san smiled even brighter and Yahaba could have sworn his eyes flickered over to Kyoutani (who was grumbling something about “bullshit” under his breath) before settling on Kunimi’s once more. “It’s mandatory!” He chirped out. 

 

“If it makes you feel better,” Iwaizumi-san said to Kunimi, “Oikawa will not be picking the movies, or allowed near fire.”

 

Oikawa-san’s indignant squawking signaled the end of their team powwow and everyone began to disperse.

  
Yahaba walked away to begin warm-ups, daydreaming about what a great team bonding activity it would be for the team to bury his body when he inevitably died this weekend. He could almost hear Oikawa-san’s cheery voice announcing it as their next activity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it took 8 chapters to get Yahaba to figure out that he's got the hots for Kyouken-chan. Sorry for putting the "slow" in "slow burn" lol. I'm trying to get this fic done before I get busy this summer, so you can expect regular updates.
> 
> Come chat with me about Haikyuu!! stuff at toorujime.tumblr.com


	9. With the Right Circumstances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yahaba, Jesus, pay attention to the movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo I am so sorry about the delay recently. I promise I will not leave this fic unfinished. I just had some unexpected family issues come up recently, so I haven't been able to update. I made this chapter a little bit longer in apology, and I promise I will do my best to update soon!!! Hope you enjoy. 
> 
> As always, not beta-read.
> 
> PS. you may have noticed that Iwaoi was added to the tags. This story will be centered around Yahaba/Kyoutani, but I have added a little bit of plot for them too, so enjoy :)

Friday came much sooner than Yahaba had anticipated, and it was clear that he was not the only one anticipating it. Kyoutani seemed moodier than usual, Kindaichi seemed somewhat nervous and excited to be spending so much time with the senpais, and Oikawa-san could be heard deciding what shape, color and number of marshmallows would be necessary for s’mores-making purposes. 

 

Yahaba was not alone in being surprised that there was any other option than one bag of white cylindrical ones. 

 

Unfortunately, any time Oikawa-san seemed close to deciding on a brand and amount, Matsukawa-san and Hanamaki-san would give well thought out arguments detailing why that was a bad decision. It seemed to be their intention to drive Iwaizumi to the brink of a mental breakdown before they even arrived at Hanamaki-san’s house.

 

Nevertheless, when Yahaba got there on Friday night, everything was surprisingly in order, and quite peaceful. Hanamaki’s house was incredibly nice. Even from the street you could tell that it was incredibly large, and though the front of the house looked plain, the inside was filled with Western-style furniture, and, well, six large volleyball players. In fact, if it weren’t for the large number of small packages of multicolored marshmallows, the whole place would seem incredibly classy. 

 

Matsukawa-san greeted Yahaba at the door and walked him down the long hallway filled with baby pictures of who Yahaba could only imagine was Hanamaki-san, and into a modern looking kitchen filled with plates of snacks.

 

Iwaizumi-san, Watari and Kindaichi were all snacking and discussing the possibilities for their new lineup in the next tournament and Hanamaki-san and Oikawa-san appeared to be in a serious debate about the possibility of time travel, which Oikawa-san seemed to be taking much too seriously, but they all turned to say hello to him when he walked in. 

 

Within five minutes, the doorbell sounded again and Matsukawa went to retrieve the next arrival. Yahaba could feel his stomach churning in anticipation, but he ignored it and tried to at least pretend to be an active participant in the volleyball conversation. This turned out to be a mistake as Kyoutani walked in a second later, and was also shepherded into the conversation by Watari.

 

Luckily it only took another couple of minutes before Kunimi showed up, fashionably late (or more likely just really lazy), and Oikawa-san declared in a sugary-sweet voice that they were all going to watch a movie that he had brought. That sounded like a good idea to Yahaba, until he somehow found himself sandwiched between Kyoutani and Oikawa-san on a large couch, with Watari leaning against his legs. He tried not to feel ganged up on. He had a feeling that Oikawa-san had orchestrated it that way in some grand plan, so that he couldn’t escape. Yahaba also suspected that Hanamaki-san and Matsukawa-san (who had squished into one large chair by sitting on top of each other) had gone along with it, probably just to see what would happen. They had a dangerous curiosity about them.

 

And so Yahaba found himself watching a movie that for the life of him, he could not remember the name of, taking deep breaths to calm his breathing. 

 

He was pretty sure that Oikawa-san could sense fear.

 

The trouble was that Yahaba couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the movie at all. He was trying, at least, to keep up appearances, but he was so distracted, it was becoming an issue. The problem was that he thought that this girl was the man’s daughter, but they just started making out, and no one seems surprised. So, new theory, they’re dating.

 

Yahaba’s mind went blank as he felt Kyoutani wiggle beside him. The heat radiating from him felt so intense that Yahaba was surprised that no one else could feel it. He wanted to take his shirt off to cool down. He could take Kyoutani’s shirt off too-

 

Nope.

 

Nope, nope, nope. 

 

He turned his attention back to the screen again and found that the girl’s boyfriend had just come home. New theory: she’s cheating on him with the man from earlier?

 

Yahaba was just starting to think that he might be getting the hang of this weird plotless movie, when the tv shut off. As did the lights. 

 

“Did the power just go out?” Yahaba heard Kindaichi ask nervously from somewhere to his right.

 

“There isn’t even a storm going on. I think the breaker just needs to be flipped,” rang out Iwaizumi’s commanding voice.

 

That sparked a debate about what could have caused the blackout, if the breaker needed to be flipped and who would go find it.

 

“Guys, guys, guys- Hear me out.” Everyone turned their attention to Hanamaki as he drew in a large breath. “Werewolves.”

 

There was a beat of silence.

 

“Makki, go flip the breaker.” Said Oikawa-san from his right. Mastukawa-san burst out laughing, and made to get up before Iwaizumi-san stopped him.

 

“Absolutely not. We are not letting you two idiots run around in a blackout.”

 

Yahaba saw his chance to get some fresh air and he took it. “I’ll go,” he offered. “Just tell me where the breaker is.”

 

He wiggled out from his spot on the couch and felt an immense sense of relief, mixed with a bit of disappointment at having to move away from Kyoutani.  _ What was  _ wrong _ with him? _

 

Yahaba headed outside, into the backyard, per Hanamaki-san’s instructions, and walked around to the side of the house to open the control panel. He flipped all of the switches. Nothing happened. Maybe he did something wrong. He tried again, but nothing happened. After looking around for some other box that he may have missed, Yahaba was forced to conclude that maybe it was a blackout after all, and he made his way back towards the backyard.

 

As he returned, he saw two people, who were unmistakably Oikawa-san and Iwaizumi-san’s dark figures, standing on the back porch. Yahaba was about to call out to them when he heard his name being spoken and he quickly stepped behind a nearby tree, only to almost trip over someone leaning against it. 

 

Strong hands picked him upright and spun him around to press him against the tree instead. He was about to protest when a hand covered his mouth, and he inhaled a scent that he had caught a whiff of several times before. 

 

Yahaba almost laughed at the irony. Kyoutani was now pressing him up against a wall, and he was failing to fight back. What a turn of events. Instead of laughing, though, or trying to get out of his hold, Yahaba tuned in to the conversation transpiring only a few feet away on the porch. 

 

“-It’s not that big of a deal, is all I’m saying-”

 

“It  _ is  _ a big deal Iwa-chan. I want my whole team to get along.”

 

Yahaba felt a wave of guilt wash over him.

 

“Tooru…” Iwaizumi-san started in a much softer voice, but Oikawa-san was having none of it apparently. 

 

“Don’t.” He snapped, and he turned away to head back into the house.

 

After a few moments of silence, Iwaizumi-san followed, and Yahaba was left alone outside with Kyoutani. Once they were sure he was gone, Kyoutani removed his hand, but didn’t think to back away. 

 

“Sorry,” he grunted out.

 

Yahaba was quiet for a moment. 

 

“They were talking about us.”

 

Kyoutani grunted in assent. Then, apparently deciding that that was not enough, he breathed out a “yeah.”

 

Yahaba felt like this was some sort of chance, but what kind, he couldn’t be sure. Maybe it was a chance for him and Kyoutani to bury the hatchet?

 

“I want to get along.” He tried.

 

There was a long pause. Kyoutani seemed to realize that he was still pinning Yahaba to a tree, and gently removed his arm, stepping back. “Okay,” he said so quietly that Yahaba almost missed it from a foot away. 

 

They stayed there in silence for another moment, while Yahaba’s brain tried to catch up.

 

_ I should have gotten a few more kisses out of it,  _ he remembered telling himself, not too long ago.

 

Maybe this was a chance for him to get a few more kisses out of it.

  
Without thinking any further, Yahaba took the half of a step necessary to get into Kyoutani’s personal space, and threw caution to the wind, softly pressing his lips against the other boy’s. Kyoutani jolted for a moment, seemingly surprised by this turn of events, before pressing back against him, and Yahaba let himself melt into the kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come chat with me on my haikyuu!! tumblr at toorujime.tumblr.com
> 
> Let me know if you find any mistakes!!


	10. Without Any Forethought

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I <3 Seijou team dynamics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it took me so long to update, guys! I've had a weird summer. Anyways, here's some Seijou sleepover :)

It might have been a few seconds or several hours before Yahaba moved back to break their kiss. Thankfully, he was still leaning against a tree, otherwise he may have fallen over from the sheer dizziness and buzzing in his head. He opened his eyes to see Kyoutani peering at him with a strange look on his face, one part guarded and two parts hopefulness. He looked dazed, with his eyes half lidded but Yahaba thought that he saw the flicker of a familiar flame underneath.

 

Before he could think better of it, he leaned in again and got lost in the glide of Kyoutani’s tongue against his lower lip and the slide of his hands down Yahaba’s side. Feeling brave, he nipped at Kyoutani’s lower lip, earning himself a startled gasp in response, and their kisses suddenly turned from relaxed and languid to heated.

 

Yahaba gripped tightly onto the front of Kyoutani’s shirt and angled his head better, to slide his tongue into Kyoutani’s mouth, earning a moan that almost sounded like a growl. He could feel the heat pooling in his stomach, until he realized with a start that this was getting away from him… and that they were standing in Hanamaki-san’s backyard. He forced himself to pull away.

 

Yahaba leaned back slightly and tried to catch his breath as he whispered “We need to go inside.”

 

Kyoutani made a noise of assent, but made no move to pull away. His eyes were still dark, boring into Yahaba’s which was not helping him calm down, but his face also conveyed a curiosity, like he was waiting for Yahaba so explain himself.

 

Suddenly worried that Kyoutani might ask him a question that he did not have an answer to, Yahaba started to pull away.

 

“I’m… Uhh… I’m going to go in.”

 

Kyoutani looked back at him, grunting in assent, arms dropping to his sides. Figuring that that was the best dismissal he was going to get, Yahaba turned around and walked back into the house, trying to even out his breathing as he went.

 

Inside the house seemed darker than he remembered it being, and Yahaba quickly found himself feeling around in order to not bump into things on his way back to the living room. Luckily, the amount of sound emanating from the living room made it difficult to miss. It was amazing how quickly this team could devolve into chaos.

 

Upon entering the living room, Yahaba remembered the flashlight app on his phone, bringing the phone up in his hands before pressing the top button to unlock it, lighting up his face. He nearly dropped it when the room erupted into screams.

 

“Jesus, guys! It’s just me!” He turned on the flashlight and shone it around the room. Iwaizumi-san appeared to be in the middle of trying to pull Oikawa-san off of Matsukawa-san on the floor, while Hanamaki-san laughed from the armchair. Kindaichi was still seated on the ground, huddled against Kunimi’s legs, who had apparently stolen a spot on the couch to relax as soon as it was vacated. He also didn’t seem remotely perturbed by Yahaba’s sudden appearance.

 

Iwaizumi-san used the momentary lapse in concentration to hoist Oikawa-san up and throw him on the couch next to Kunimi.

 

“You couldn’t find the breaker?” Iwaizumi-san asked, turning to Yahaba.

 

“No, I did. It’s the thing with all of the switches right? I flipped them all, twice, but nothing happened.”

 

“Huh…” Oikawa-san said, seemingly having regained some composure. “Maybe it really is a power outage then.”

 

“What do we do?” Kindaichi asked nervously.

 

Oikawa-san smiled at him by the light of the phone. “I’m glad you asked, my sweet little innocent kouhai. The only logical option stands before us now. We must… Roast marshmallows!”

 

Oikawa-san clapped his hands together and led the way out through the kitchen, everyone following closely behind. In front of him, Yahaba could hear Hanamaki-san giving Iwaizumi-san bad instructions on how to get out of the house, followed by a _thunk_ and some angry barking from Iwaizumi-san.

 

On their way outside, they regained Watari, who had gone to the bathroom after Yahaba left to flip the breaker, and Kyoutani, who no one appeared to have noticed leave, or come back. Barring Oikawa-san of course.

 

Yahaba cursed himself internally. They were all busy while he was gone, and barely noticed Kyoutani come back. The two of them could have stayed out there and continued where they left off. He had no idea when and if another opportunity like this would present itself.

 

On the bright side, it appeared that his hunch about Kyoutani not being a gossip was right. He had had a small moment of panic when Kyoutani had caught up with the group, worrying that maybe they would all know exactly what happened upon seeing the two of them, but nothing had happened. And now, as Yahaba stabbed a heart-shaped yellow marshmallow, that Oikawa-san insisted was actually “ _gold, Yahaba-chan!”_ , everything felt a little bit more calm.

 

Yahaba snuck a glance out of the corner of his eye at Kyoutani, who was the only one without a marshmallow on a stick (barring Kunimi of course who was having Kindaichi try to roast both of theirs simultaneously). It occurred to him that this lack of marshmallow roasting was more likely due to Kyoutani not wanting to cross in front of everyone and get a marshmallow and stick from Oikawa-san, than from not wanting to roast a marshmallow, and Yahaba had the sudden urge to get one for him. But that would be weird. Or maybe it wouldn’t? Maybe Oikawa-san would see it as him trying to get along with Kyoutani? Or maybe Oikawa-san would see right through him, and exclaim loudly that he _knew_ something was going on with Kyoutani and Yahaba!

 

Well… that seemed less likely, because Oikawa-san did have some tact, but the fear remained. Yahaba was still waging an internal war of overthinking when Iwaizumi-san looked over at Kyoutani and took it upon himself to grab a marshmallow and stick from a distracted Oikawa-san and walk over to hand them to Kyoutani.

 

Yahaba felt relief with that, mixed with just a little pang of jealousy. It was so _easy_ for Iwaizumi-san to do that. And it really looked like Kyoutani appreciated it. Why was that so difficult for _him_?

 

Later that night, Yahaba was still thinking about it as he changed into his bedclothes. He snuck a peek at Kyoutani as he did so, which turned out to be a mistake, as Kyoutani was shirtless, and also caught him staring. They both turned red and turned away from each other.

 

Underneath his embarrassment, Yahaba actually felt a little bit better. Iwaizumi-san may be able to help Kyoutani out with little things, but he was fairly sure that he hadn’t made out with him behind Hanamaki-san’s house. So there’s that.

  
With that thought in his head, Yahaba drifted off to sleep, trying not to think about what it would feel like to be sleeping in Kyoutani’s bed with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wanna chat Haikyuu!! my tumblr is toorujime.tumblr.com :)  
> thanks for reading! comments and kudos are appreciated <3


	11. With a Little Luck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yahaba tries to get Kyoutani alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry if there are mistakes, I did very little editing of this chapter before posting, because I want to try to catch up after such a long absence. I don't like leaving work unfinished! So if you seeany mistakes, feel free to let me know in the comments or on my tumblr: toorujime.tumblr.com
> 
> Thanks for all the love guys!! It's very motivating :) I appreciate all of you who've stuck through this whole thing with me <3

Yahaba spent most of the rest of the weekend in his bedroom, fretting, which seemed appropriate.

 

The more he thought about it, the more he wished he had explicitly asked Kyoutani not to tell anyone about them. Not that that conversation would have likely gone well, but… Well he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was going to find out about it. About him.

 

Yahaba also wished he had gotten Kyoutani’s phone number, but he couldn’t imagine himself actually using it. It just felt weird to know so little about the only boy he’d ever kissed.

 

And what about practice on Monday? Would Kyoutani even show up? Yahaba really didn’t want him to ghost out on practice again after Oikawa-san had been trying so hard to integrate him, and yet a small part of Yahaba remembered pushing Kyoutani against a wall and holding back from kissing him. Maybe if he had to go find Kyoutani again he could really kiss him this time.

 

Yahaba pushed down that thought. _The team comes first_.

 

 _And plus_ , Yahaba thought with a shudder, he didn’t want to get caught making out with Kyoutani at school.

* * *

 

By the time Monday morning rolled around, Yahaba was a ball of nerves. He did his best to act normal, but he could tell that his teammates knew something was up when Watari greeted him with a light slap on the back and Yahaba responded with a decidedly unmanly squeak. Fortunately, Hanamaki-san and Matsukawa-san hadn’t arrived yet, and everyone else was much too tired to put much effort into making fun of him.

 

Unfortunately, Yahaba only seemed to freak out more, the longer it took for Kyoutani to arrive. Finally, when he could no longer pretend that he had any more reason to be in the locker room, Yahaba made his way to the door, only to find it thrown open seconds before he could reach it. Yahaba grinded to a halt as Kyoutani nearly ran into him. He could feel his face heating up, but before he could stutter out any sort of response, Kyoutani nodded and side-stepped him and walked into the locker room without a word.

 

 _I have to kiss him again_ , Yahaba thought, walking down to the gym and pondering the familiar swooping feeling in his stomach.

* * *

 

Yahaba’s chance didn’t come along until Wednesday after practice. As much as he had been trying to act normal, Yahaba seemed to have now developed some sort of uncontrollable habit of staring at Kyoutani when he thought he could get away with it. Which was often. It might have been his imagination, but Yahaba felt like he caught Kyoutani looking at him more often too, which would not have been a problem, except for the fact that they almost exclusively saw each other at volleyball practice.

 

On Wednesday afternoon, Yahaba had gone to get a drink of water on the sidelines while Watari was teaching receiving practice to the first and second years. After receiving his spike from Iwaizumi-san, he walked over to his water bottle and watched for a moment. It appeared as though Iwaizumi-san was going to target Kunimi next, but at the last minute, he switched, sending the ball hurtling toward Kyoutani who was- _Oh my God, looking at Yahaba_.

 

Yahaba saw it happen as if in slow motion, the ball slamming into the side of Kyoutani’s head and knocking him to the ground.

 

“Jesus!” He heard Iwaizumi-san exclaim, before ducking under the net to check up on Kyoutani.

 

Kyoutani tried to brush it off and stand up but Coach Irihata was having none of it.

 

“You’re going to go to the nurse and get checked out-”

 

“No, I-”

 

“Yes you are. Oikawa you can take him to the nurse.”

 

At that, Kyoutani looked truly alarmed.

 

“I can go by myself.” He grumbled. And before anyone could protest, he was walking out the door.

 

The rest of the practice passed so unremarkably, Yahaba almost found himself bored and by the time Iwaizumi-san was dragging Oikawa-san out of the gym, as he had apparently already exceeded his daily volleyball quota when he had arrived for morning practice two hours early, Yahaba too, was ready to go home. The first and second years stayed to clean up the gym, and Iwaizumi-san tossed Yahaba the keys to lock up, leaving Yahaba groaning internally.

 

After the gym had been thoroughly cleaned, the others left Yahaba to lock up and went to change. By the time Yahaba had joined them, they were already leaving, calling their goodbyes out to him as they walked out the door. Yahaba changed rather quickly, intent on getting home for dinner while it was still hot, and then checked around the room before locking up. Only-

 

Oh, Kyoutani hadn’t come back to get his things. Did he forget and just go home? Oh my God did he get taken to the hospital and didn’t have the chance to come collect them?!

 

Before he could panic any more than he had already, Yahaba heard the door open behind him and turned to see Kyoutani with an ice pack in his hand, stopped in the doorway.

 

Yahaba put a hand to his chest. “Oh thank God.” He said, slumping inwards a little.

 

Kyoutani just grunted in greeting. “Expecting someone else?”

 

“No.” Replied Yahaba turning slightly pink. “I just thought you like, went to the hospital or something ‘cause you didn’t come back.”

 

Kyoutani paused from where he was digging through his bag for clothes and looked at Yahaba liked he had suddenly turned into a lizard. It was only then that he realized how weird it was that he would be worried about Kyoutani… That he _was_ worried about Kyoutani, and he colored even more.

 

Kyoutani went back to digging through his bag for clothes, and Yahaba stood behind him awkwardly, unable to leave until he locked up, and not even sure that he wanted to. Finally, realizing that this was probably his only chance to kiss Kyoutani again (two days of looking for an opportunity had shown him that he and Kyoutani were rarely ever in the same place, let alone at the same time, and without others around) Yahaba sat down on the bench next to Kyoutani’s things.

 

Kyoutani paused for a moment, and then, seemingly deciding to say nothing, returned to his rummaging.

 

After finding what he was looking for, Kyoutani straightened up and looked at Yahaba once more.

 

“Are you just gonna watch me change then?” He asked gruffly.

 

Yahaba sputtered. “No! I mean- I have to lock up.” He held up the keys, before deciding to lean into the curve. It was going to take some serious confidence to get another kiss from Kyoutani. With that in mind he continued. “So yeah, actually. I am.”

 

This time it was Kyoutani’s turn to blush bright red. “Everyone else is gone?” He asked with wide eyes.

 

Yahaba felt his face break into a smile. Embarrassed Kyoutani was so _cute_ . He felt much more _in charge_ now. Feigning innocence, he looked up at Kyoutani and replied “Yeah. You want help taking off your clothes?”

 

Kyoutani flushed even deeper this time and looked back at Yahaba with wide eyes. “Are you… Are you messing with me? I mean, or do you…”

 

“Did I mean it?”

 

Kyoutani nodded.

 

“Well I don’t see why they’re mutually exclusive.” Yahaba reasoned.

 

Kyoutani frowned at him in confusion, and Yahaba wanted to kiss the frown off of his face. “What?”

 

Yahaba stood up and stepped into his personal space. He could almost _feel_ Kyoutani fighting the instinct to run away. He put his hands on Kyoutani’s chest, and leaned in, stopping only millimeters from Kyoutani’s lips. “Both.”

  
And Kyoutani closed the distance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos are appreciated :)  
> toorujime.tumblr.com
> 
> ps. just a warning, next chapter is when things get a little more explicit! I'll warn at the beginning of the chapter though.


	12. With a Racing Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smut. Just all smut. Sorry not sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some pretty heavy praise kink in here so sorry if that's not your thing.

“ _ Fuck _ ,” Yahaba panted out, turning his head to the side to breathe for a moment. That turned out to be a mistake when only moments later Kyoutani began sucking on his neck, causing him to suck in a quick breath and lean further into the boy. 

 

“Ah- Goddamnit, how are you so  _ good  _ at this?” Yahaba breathed out.

 

Kyoutani let out a feral growl at that and used the hands on Yahaba’s hips to spin them around and slam him into the locker between theirs. Yahaba’s blood rushed in his ears when he remembered a fantasy of his, almost identical to their actual situation, only to have his mind go blank a second later when Kyoutani harshly ground his hips into Yahaba’s, pressing him roughly against the lockers.

 

As Yahaba’s brain slowly started to function again, he thought about Kyoutani’s reaction to his words just now and remembered how they had kissed the first time. He decided to test out a theory. 

 

Yahaba leaned down slightly and brushed his lips against Kyoutani’s ear. 

 

“You like it when I compliment you, huh?”

 

Kyoutani froze for a second and growled a “ _ shut the fuck up _ ,” but Yahaba could see his telltale embarrassed whole body flush, and laughed lightly. Before Kyoutani could freak out about it, Yahaba leaned back down to whisper again. 

 

“Don’t stop- You’re so good.”

 

At that, Kyoutani let out a quiet whine, bucking against Yahaba again, who could now feel how impressively hard he was. 

 

“Fuck Kyoutani- Holy  _ shit _ -” Yahaba could feel himself babbling, and briefly tried to suppress it out of embarrassment. On the other hand, Kyoutani seemed to like it, and anything that got him more of  _ this  _ was, at this point, something he was willing to do.

 

In an attempt to get more friction, Yahaba lowered his hands from Kyoutani’s chest ( _ oh my God his  _ **_chest_ ** ) to grab at his ass. Kyoutani yelped for a second before he rolled his hips into Yahaba’s, causing Yahaba’s laugh to cut off into a moan halfway through. 

 

“Shit- Kyou, I need-” Getting words out was becoming increasingly more difficult, but Yahaba wanted  _ more _ , and he was done waiting for it. He grabbed at the hem of Kyoutani’s shirt and lifted it, hoping he would catch on, which he did after a moment, and soon they were both shirtless. 

 

Kyoutani quickly went back to pressing him into the locker, only this time with his bare skin rubbing into Yahaba’s, sending bolts of electricity down his spine with each thrust.  _ Fuck _ , he wanted to feel that all over. He wanted Kyoutani to bend him over and pound into him, mercilessly.  _ Gods _ , he need to feel Kyoutani’s dick in his hands. Yahaba needed to rile him up. 

 

“Fuck, Kyou- Ah- You look so good. You-  _ Ah! _ Feel so good.” Kyoutani groaned loudly and bit down sharply on his neck. “ _ Shit- _ Kyou- I need you to- To touch me.”

 

Kyoutani hesitated for a second before pulling back slightly to run his hand over the bulge in Yahaba’s pants. Yahaba dropped his head onto Kyoutani’s shoulder and moaned, digging his nails into Kyoutani’s sides. He didn’t seem to mind.

 

There was something that he liked about being able to tell Kyoutani what to do, and having him do it without question. 

 

“You’re so good Kyou-” Yahaba wanted to go further. He wanted to make  _ Kyoutani  _ go further.  “ _ Ah! _ I want your hands on me.”

 

“ _ Fuck _ .” Kyoutani growled, but to Yahaba it sounded kind of like a whine. He watched Kyoutani move to undo his pants with some apprehension and decided that he needed a little push.

 

“ _ Uh _ !  _ Yes _ , Kyou-” He helped Kyoutani push his pants down for his cock to spring free, but before Kyoutani could start touching him, he cooed into his ear. “You too.”

 

He watched Kyoutani shove down his own shorts and free his aching member, and tried not to drool. It felt so good to have Kyoutani listening to him for once. He had never been so turned on in his life.

 

Yahaba dragged Kyoutani back into him and rolled his hips once, enjoying the catch of Kyoutani’s breath as they rubbed together. 

 

Yahaba couldn’t help but play with this new obidient Kyoutani. 

 

“Put your hand around both of us,” he whispered.

 

Kyoutani whimpered but didn’t hesitate this time. Yahaba caught his eye, could see the obvious lust there, and leaned in for a sloppy desperate kiss, just as Kyoutani started stroking them both together. Yahaba parted from him to catch his breath and bite at his earlobes (he had nice ears, Yahaba decided).

 

And then because he couldn’t help it he cooed “what a  _ good boy _ .”

 

Only it didn’t get him the angry growl he was expecting. Instead, Kyoutani whined loudly, tightening his grip around the both of them and thrusting into it quickly.  _ Shit  _ Kyoutani would  _ kill  _ him for talking to him like that on a regular day, but Yahaba was quickly learning that there were different rules for this kind of thing. 

 

Yahaba felt like a rubber band being stretched to its limits, ready to snap. Soon the words were coming out of his mouth unbidden, broken by loud whines.

 

“ _ Ah _ , Kyou you’re so good… Doing just what I-  _ Hng! _ Just what I tell you. Just what I want.  _ Ah!  _ what a good boy. You look so good like that, fuck you’d look so good fucking me over a table…” Kyoutani let out a whine and sped up again. “Shit- Yes! Yesyesyes! Ah!  _ Kentarou _ !”

 

Yahaba came, whining Kyoutani’s name, and Kyoutani stroked him through it, coming right after him. 

 

They collapsed into each other, and Yahaba buried his face in Kyoutani’s neck, wrapping his arms around him, perfectly content for the moment. Kyoutani’s forehead rested on his shoulder, breathing heavily. 

 

The sat in silence for a few minutes until Yahaba abruptly burst out laughing.

 

“What?” Kyoutani growled, defensive as always, but Yahaba notices his ears glowing pink.

 

“This-” he started before taking a deep breath to try again. “This is Watari’s locker.”

  
“Oh.” Kyoutani said, and his ears glowed brighter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THEY WILL DO THE DO. Just not in this chapter. Sorry guys ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> toorujime.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are always appreciated :)
> 
> If you have any questions, or you just wanna chat, you can find my Haikyuu!! tumblr here:  
> toorujime.tumblr.com
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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